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Yoel Hoffmann is an Israeli writer born in 1937 in Brasov (Kronstadt), Romania. Brought up in a German-speaking family, already in his first book, Sefer Yosef (1989), he conveys the voice of German-speaking immigrants in Israel (the “Katschen” story, 1986) and that of the East European Jewish community in Berlin in the late 1930s, on the verge of the Second World War. His works are crammed with characters of Jews from Germany gripped by the memory of the language they abandoned following their emigration to Palestine in the 1930s. The classic one is the character of Bernhard, in the eponymous work. The current article focuses on the representation and elaboration of Hoffmann’s unique creation, in a language influenced by his deep identification with Zen Buddhism on the one hand, and his attraction to the modernist, Western style of stream of consciousness on the other. In central sections of his works, Hoffman presents his entire literary corpus as a type of explicit, allusive, or secret Holocaust literature, and invites his readers and his critics to decode the allusions and expose the secret in this theme, a surprising statement in relation to Hoffmann’s work and its analysis so far. Hoffmann represents the Holocaust as a collective Israeli trauma for which his literary fiction creates a special catalogue of representative characters. In the creation of a catalogue, and particularly one that simultaneously classifies and individualizes, Hoffmann’s project resembles the monumental 1920s cataloguing project by the celebrated German photographer August Sander (Menschen des 20. Jahrhunderts). Hoffmann included photographs from this project in his works, and even chose some of them for the covers of his books. The article examines the implicit relationships between these two creative artists as conferring a meaning so far not considered in the research of the Holocaust theme in Yoel Hoffmann’s writings.
rezensiertes Werk: Leshonot yehude Sefarad ve-ha-mizrach vesifruyotehem / Languages and literatures of Sephardic and Oriental Jews. - Jerusalem : Misgav Yerushalayim, 2009. - 484 S. [hebr.] + 434 S. [lat.], ; Ill.
Immobile Tremor
(2011)
The threshold between the XVth and the XVIth Century represents a historical period during which, both for Christians and for Jews, the geopolitical sceneries and the interior horizons radically change. The modified reality provokes new forms of expectation and the need of new historical interpretations. Ferrara, within this scenery, can be considered, as other Italian cases, as a paradigmatic example, a narrow space where phenomena of spiritual and cultural Jewish rebirth can take shape. The permeability between Christian artistic and cultural world and Jewish intellectual production determines a prosperous context, further strengthened by the introduction of Jewish typography and by a growing claim and restoration of social elective dignity among the Jews of the Este Duchy. After the transfer of the capital city from Ferrara to Modena, the indirect effects of this intellectual resurgence are deeply transformed on a social level, and allows us to catch the persistence of important forms of communication between Christians and Jews in everyday life. The introduction of the Inquisition provides us, through the production of the judicial archive, with the most important instrument to understand social dynamics, which allows us to comprehend a new potential interpretation key for the reality of the ghetto and the choice of its erection. The urban division is nothing else but a new attempt to separate the invisible spaces of the thought. The effective efficacy of the physical separation shows several weak points, which persist during the entire life of the ghetto, since 1638 until 1789.
In postsocialist Potsdam, religious diversity has risen surprisingly in public life since 1990 although more than 80% of the residents have no religious affiliation. City and state authorities have actively embraced issues around immigration and integration as well as the promotion of religious diversity and interreligious dialogue and have linked this to the agenda of rejuvenating the city’s religious heritage. For years, negotiations have been going on about the need of a mosque, the reconstructions of a synagogue and the so-called “Garrison Church,” a landmark military church building. These initiatives have been dominating the public space for different reasons. They implied, beyond religion, questions of memory, identity, immigration, and culture. This article puts these three cases into perspective to offer a nuanced understanding of the importance of religious spaces in secular contexts considering city politics.
The Babylonian Talmud (BT) attributes the idea of committing a transgression for the sake of God to R. Nahman b. Isaac (RNBI). RNBI's statement appears in two parallel sugyot in the BT (Nazir 23a; Horayot 10a). Each sugya has four textual witnesses. By comparing these textual witnesses, this paper will attempt to reconstruct the sugya's earlier (or, what some might term, original) dialectical form, from which the two familiar versions of the text in Nazir and Horayot evolved. This article reveals the specific ways in which, value-laden conceptualizations have a major impact on the Talmud's formulation, as we know it today.
The Babylonian Talmud (BT) attributes the idea of committing a transgression for the sake of God to R. Nahman b. Isaac (RNBI). RNBI's statement appears in two parallel sugyot in the BT (Nazir 23a; Horayot 10a). Each sugya has four textual witnesses. By comparing these textual witnesses, this paper will attempt to reconstruct the sugya's earlier (or, what some might term, original) dialectical form, from which the two familiar versions of the text in Nazir and Horayot evolved. This article reveals the specific ways in which, value-laden conceptualizations have a major impact on the Talmud's formulation, as we know it today.
This paper explores questions surrounding corporeality and heavenly ascent, in texts ranging from 1 Enoch to the Hekhalot literature, including Philo’s works. It examines both descriptions of the heavenly realms and accounts of the ascent process. Despite his Platonic apophaticism, Philo superimposes cosmological and spiritual heavens, and draws upon the biblical imagery of dazzling glory. Although they do not express themselves in philosophical language, the heavenly ascent texts make it clear that human beings cannot ascend to heaven in their earthly bodies, and that God cannot be seen with terrestrial eyes. In terms of ideas they are not so far from the philosopher Philo as might at first appear.
The issue of determining the time, when the Judaic communities have settled on Romanian land, is one of the most interesting and most delicate details that can be mentioned when talking about this ethnic group. The presence of the first Jewish communities in ancient times on this land was a “taboo” subject during many historical periods until 1989, but even after this year, studies oriented in this direction were more than sketchy. The article does not only bring a surplus of information in this domain, but manages to concentrate – almost didactically – the information and the archaeological proofs known and reknown to the present time. There are depicted material evidences as well as linguistic ones, toponymical and even religious. Also, the author tries to draw a parallel between some layouts of the Dacian state and Dacia Felix, conquered by the Romans, and the presence of some Judaic communities, not very numerous, made out of Judaic population who came together with the Roman conqueror.
There Is No Return To Egypt
(2013)
Who are those Polish Jews, who in the wake of the Antizionist Campaign of the year 1968 left their home country and migrated to Israel? How do they, 40 years after these traumatic events, look back at their own history? Which development have they made in the Jewish State, a society torn by wars and inner political tensions? How do they live in Israel at the beginning of the 21st century? In the documentary There Is No Return To Egypt seven members of the Polish-Jewish migration cohort of the late 1960s, early 1970s and there todays environment are represented. These people, while being on camera in their mid-fifties till late seventies of age, allow an intimate view into their Israeli-Polish daily-life and into their world of memories. Interestingly, having survived the atrocities of the Shoah and being forced out of Poland some twenty years later, the older interviewees draw their very own conclusions for their further lives in Israel. In contrast, the younger interviewees deal very differently with the loss of their home and the break in their career life caused by the Antizionist Campaign. The personalities presented in this documentary have various professions: There is a successful musician, a former employee at the Israeli broadcasting service, and there are skilled workers. Their religious identities widely vary: from Jewish orthodox and national-religious to atheist to Judeo-Christian. The protagonists in There Is No Return To Egypt do also represent the political spectrum of Israel: from members of the chauvinist-militarist camp through to members of the peace movement. At the same time, the shooting locations in the documentary are important stages of life for the seven 1968ers: the home being decorated for Shabbat or for Israels national holiday Yom ha-atzmaut, the working place, an army museum, a Jewish settlement in the Palestinian Westbank, a Shoah memorial event at the university campus, a pop concert and a peace demonstration.
rezensiertes Werk: Grossman, David: Eine Frau flieht vor einer Nachricht. - München : Hanser, 2009. - 728 S. ISBN 978-3-446-23397-3
The valediction of Moses
(2021)
Wilhelm Moses Shapira's infamous Deuteronomy fragments have long been deemed forgeries, with Shapira himself serving as the obvious suspect. I provide new evidence that Shapira did not forge the fragments and was himself convinced of their authenticity. Indeed, the evidence for forgery is illusory. In a companion monograph, I show that the Shapira fragments are not only authentic ancient artifacts but are unprecedented in their significance: They preserve a pre-canonical antecedent of the Book of Deuteronomy.
Many Christians react in alarm when being confronted with reincarnation. They tend to regard it as an alien or exotic idea or sometimes even as an occult or dangerous teaching that leads away from the Christian path. Thus, belief in rebirth is often regarded as clearly not compatible with orthodox Christianity. However, no less than 30% of people in the Western world believe in a form of reincarnation, which indicates the urgency for an academic examination of this subject. Patrick Diemling examines under what conditions or restrictions a person who is attracted by the notion of reincarnation could at the same time remain fundamentally loyal to Christ. In a survey through the pivotal sections of Christian theology (such as soteriology, cosmology and eschatology), he investigates the critical points regarding the question of a possible compatibility of reincarnation with the Christian faith. What does the Bible say about reincarnation? What are the points of disagreement between orthodox Christians and defenders of the idea of rebirth? How would Christian theology need to be modified so as to integrate belief in reincarnation? The present volume tries to answer these questions.
Foreign Entanglements
(2021)
This article explores an instructive case of translation critique against the background of the rise of Zionism in Europe at the turn of the previous century. It seeks to answer the question: Why did David Frishman, one of the most prolific Hebrew writers and translators of the late 1890s and early 1900s, criticize Vladimir Jabotinsky’s Russian translation of Hayim Nahman Bialik’s Hebrew poems? Both Bialik and Jabotinsky were major figures in the field of Hebrew culture and Zionist politics in the early 1900s, while Frishman generally shunned partisan activism and consistently presented himself as devoted solely to literature. Frishman perceived literature, nevertheless, as a political arena, viewing translation, in particular, as a locus of ideological debate. Writing from the viewpoint of a political minority at a time in which the Hebrew translation industry in Europe gained momentum, Frishman deemed translation a tool for cementing cultural hierarchies. He anticipated later analyses of the act and products of translation as reflective of intercultural tensions. The article suggests, more specifically, that it was Frishman’s view of the Hebrew Bible that informed his “avant-garde” stance on translation.
Rabbi Jacob ben Isaac of Yanova (d. 1623) is best known as the author of the Ze’enah U-Re’enah; the Melits Yosher (“Intercessor before God”) is one of his lesser known works. It was first published in Lublin in 1622 and reprinted once in Amsterdam in 1688. Like the Ze’enah U-Re’enah, it was a Torah commentary, but composed for men who had some yeshivah education, but who could not continue their studies. The commentary on the Song of Songs by Isaac Sulkes is another Yiddish work that addresses the same audience as the Melits Yosher. The purpose of this article is to bring to scholarly attention an audience that has not been noticed or studied in the previous scholarship on early modern Yiddish literature.
rezensiertes Werk: Stephan Dörschel: Fritz Wisten : bis Zum letzten Augenblick : ein jüdisches Theaterleben. - Hentrich & Hentrich : Berlin, 2009. - 112 S. (Jüdische Miniaturen ; 74) ISBN 978-3-938485-85-9
rezensiertes Werk: Schwartz, Yigal: Maamin beli Kenessija : 4 Massot al Aharon Appelfeld. - Tel Aviv : Dvir, 2009.- 181 S.
rezensiertes Werk: Critchfield, Richard D.: From Shakespeare to Frisch: The Provocative Fritz Kortner. - Heidelberg : Synchron, 2008. - 223 S. ISBN 978-3-935025-99-7
rezensiertes Werk: Marx, Peter W.:Ein theatralisches Zeitalter : Bürgerliche Selbstinszenierungen um 1900. - Tübingen [u.a.] : A. Francke, 2008. - 429 S. ISBN 978-3-772-08220-7
The Book of Radiance
(2019)
Deuteronomy 14.3-21
(2021)
The almost verbatim parallels of the dietary laws in Lev. 11 and Deut. 14 have baffled scholars for a long time. We reexamine the evidence, offer a novel approach to determining the direction of dependency, and point out the notable similarities the borrowing bears to Second Temple editorial and redactional practices, drawing on recent Qumran scholarship. We conclude that Deut. 14.3-21 may be one of the earliest specimens of Rewritten Scripture.
Regulating public space
(2009)
New Relations in the Making?
(2023)
Russian Jews who left the Former Soviet Union (FSU) and its Successor States after 1989 are considered as one of the best qualified migrants group worldwide. In the preferred countries of destination (Israel, the United States and Germany) they are well-known for cultural self-assertion, strong social upward mobility and manifold forms of self organisation and empowerment. Using Suzanne Kellers sociological model of “Strategic Elites”, it easily becomes clear that a huge share of the Russian Jewish Immigrants in Germany and Israel are part of various elites due to their qualification and high positions in the FSU – first of all professional, cultural and intellectual elites (“Intelligentsija”). The study aimed to find out to what extent developments of cultural self-assertion, of local and transnational networking and of ethno-cultural empowerment are supported or even initiated by the immigrated (Russian Jewish) Elites. The empirical basis for this study have been 35 half-structured expert interviews with Russian Jews in both countries (Israel, Germany) – most of them scholars, artists, writers, journalists/publicists, teachers, engineers, social workers, students and politicians. The qualitative analysis of the interview material in Israel and Germany revealed that there are a lot of commonalities but also significant differences. It was obvious that almost all of the interview partners remained to be linked with Russian speaking networks and communities, irrespective of their success (or failure) in integration into the host societies. Many of them showed self-confidence with regard to the groups’ amazing professional resources (70% of the adults with academic degree), and the cultural, professional and political potential of the FSU immigrants was usually considered as equal to those of the host population(s). Thus, the immigrants’ interest in direct societal participation and social acceptance was accordingly high. Assimilation was no option. For the Russian Jewish “sense of community” in Israel and Germany, Russian Language, Arts and general Russian culture have remained of key importance. The Immigrants do not feel an insuperable contradiction when feeling “Russian” in cultural terms, “Jewish” in ethnical terms and “Israeli” / “German” in national terms – in that a typical case of additive identity shaping what is also significant for the Elites of these Immigrants. Tendencies of ethno-cultural self organisation – which do not necessarily hinder impressing individual careers in the new surroundings – are more noticeable in Israel. Thus, a part of the Russian Jewish Elites has responded to social exclusion, discrimination or blocking by local population (and by local elites) with intense efforts to build (Russian Jewish) Associations, Media, Educational Institutions and even Political Parties. All in all, the results of this study do very much contradict popular stereotypes of the Russian Jewish Immigrant as a pragmatic, passive “Homo Sovieticus”. Among the Interview Partners in this study, civil-societal commitment was not the exception but rather the rule. Traditional activities of the early, legendary Russian „Intelligentsija“ were marked by smooth transitions from arts, education and societal/political commitment. There seem to be certain continuities of this self-demand in some of the Russian Jewish groups in Israel. Though, nothing comparable could be drawn from the Interviews with the Immigrants in Germany. Thus, the myth and self-demand of Russian “Intelligentsija” is irrelevant for collective discourses among Russian Jews in Germany.
This article examines Pierre Nora’s concept of memory using the examples of York and Winchester to demonstrate the individuality of local approaches to the memory of medieval Anglo-Jewries. Overall, this paper will highlight how memory can be rescued from a period of prolonged silence and reintegrated back into a wider historical narrative. Conversely it will also examine how in stark contrast to this new attitude of remembering the silence surrounding Jewish memory continues to exist elsewhere. Finally this paper will ask why this silence remains, and question whether Nora’s theory that memory is constantly evolving is applicable to the experiences of Jewish memory in York and Winchester.
Tuwim Julian
(2003)
Stryjkowski Julian (Engl.)
(2003)
Rudnicki Adolf (Engl.)
(2003)
Korczak Janusz (Engl.)
(2003)
Lesmian Boleslaw
(2003)
rezensiertes Werk: Shraibman, Yechiel: Sieben Jahre und sieben Monate : meine Bukarester Jahre ; Roman. - Berlin : be.bra, 2009. - 272 S. ISBN 978-3-937233-56-7